When Hurricane Sandy hit in 2012, residents of Red Hook Houses, a New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) development, found themselves in a devastating situation. Shocked by intense flooding and power outages, the community members turned to each other for support. The federal government eventually passed a bill to fund the revitalization and repair of the Brooklyn neighborhood. In collaboration with New York City Council Member Carlos Menchaca, Arup engineers and OLIN landscape architects and the residents of Red Hook, KPF began work to reconstruct the neighborhood.
However, conversation with community members soon revealed to the project team that their job would entail more than designing for environmental resiliency. KPF is now working to re-evaluate and re-design Red Hook Housing not only to prevent future devastation, but also to improve the daily lives and safety of the citizens. After careful planning and preparation, building a relationship between architects, civic leaders, and the community is the key step to designing the next chapter of Red Hook.
NYCHA Red Hook Houses
Sandy Resiliency & Renewal Program
Architect: Kohn Pedersen Fox
Jill Lerner FAIA, Douglas Hocking AIA, Hana Kassem AIA , Devin Ratliff AIA, Francisco Cruz AIA, Jerri Smith
Landscape Architect: OLIN
Richard Roark ASLA, Karl Krause RLA ASLA, Greg Burrell RLA ASLA
Engineer: Arup
Vincent Lee, Ashok Raiji, Cameron Thomson, Alan Tunstead
Community:
Council Member Carlos Menchaca, District 38 of New York City
Congresswoman Nydia Velázquez, District 7 of New York
Members of the Red Hook Houses and Red Hook Community
Resiliency + ♥
Producer / Editor: Claire Dub
Cinematography: Claire Dub, Cameron Femino,
Meerkat Studio
Production Sound: Warut Snidvongs
Animation Coordinator: Morta Bautrenaite
Assistant Editor: Annie Moon
Video courtesy of KPF